A Science Fiction Story
“If you’re going to get him back,” Captain Colossus said, “you’re going to need forty-three cereal box tops.”
Ronnie was horrified; that was nearly his entire collection! “That can’t be right. Check again.”
Captain Colossus, a ten-inch-tall space robot, checked again. It took him some time to reenter the numbers in the calculator. He could hold a laser gun and do a karate chop, but he just didn’t have the manual dexterity for this sort of thing. With a mighty heave, he lifted the calculator so Ronnie could see. “I’m afraid it still comes out forty-three. …And it gets worse. Shipping and handling for the magic kit will empty your piggy bank.”
Ronnie chewed a fingertip and considered his plan. There was no telling exactly what he would need. If he didn’t have exactly the right tools, his best friend could be gone forever. “Let’s do it.”
Three days earlier, as the sun barged into the sky, thousands of adults silently cursed the onslaught of another morning.
Ronnie opened his eyes and smiled. It was Wednesday. On Wednesday, the school cafeteria served Mexican food. He bolted upright and threw back the blankets. Next to him, a white teddy bear opened its plastic eyes with a start. “Oh!” Winston gasped. “Up early today, are we?”
“Tacos!” Ronnie said simply.
“Must be Wednesday again. Now, if you don’t mind, it’s cold…” He reached for a blanket, but Ronnie pushed them away again.
“Or do I want an enchilada? Or a chimichanga? Or an epanada? Or…”
“Think about it in the shower!” Winston shivered. He had a a sweater – and a fur coat – but he couldn’t tolerate the cold. Despite obviously being a polar bear cub, he always claimed to be from Brazil. As a result, his blood was “too thin for this climate,” whatever that meant.
“Jeez! You’re crabbier than a seafood buffet.” Ronnie hopped out of bed and helped Winston get back under the covers. While Ronnie was at school, Winston would sleep all day. He had to, so he could stay up all night.
He stepped across the hall to the bathroom and took a quick bath, only playing with his ducky for ten minutes. Wrapping his towel tightly around him, he stepped into the hall, where his dad was standing blearily. “Morning, Daddy!”
“Grruh?”
“No coffee yet, I see.” Even if they had their eyes open, until they had coffee, grownups were technically still asleep. After a couple of cups, they were awake enough to cook some eggs and complain about their jobs.
“Blurgh..”
Ronnie pulled on his clothes and clomped down the stairs and out the front door. He headed across the street to Violet’s house. Violet was a girl, but you almost couldn’t tell. She always wore hand-me-downs from her big brother. She did keep her hair long, but only because her mom insisted.
As soon as Ronnie stepped on her sidewalk, Violet came running out of the house, her pigtails flying like handlebar streamers. “Ronnie! Ronnie! Come inside, quick! Mom’s making waffles, and they have chocolate chips and marshmallows in them!”
“S’more waffles? Those are the best!”
“Indeed!”
Breakfast took a little longer than usual, so Ronnie and Violet decided to take a shortcut through the woods. The trees were burning, orange, red, and gold. On weekends and in the summer, this woods was their playground, home of countless squirt gun battles and games of capture the flag. At the edge of the woods lurked a small, yellow sign: The Future Site of The Oak Hill Retirement Home.
Two redheaded boys in scout uniforms emerged from the trees. The Willard Brothers. Their freckled faces looked like failed attempts at pointillistic art. “Hi, Ronnie! Hi, Violet!”
“Hi, guys!” Violet chirped.
“Ronnie,” Billie Willard said, “our dad is takin’ us out campin’ this weekend! We’re going up to Lake Hirudinea, and we’ll go swimin’ and fishin’ and snipe huntin’ and everythin’. Want to come?”
“Sorry, Violet,” Todd Willard said, “but no girls. Can’t risk your cooties infectin’ the wildlife!”
Violet blew a raspberry. She continued in the direction of the school, yelling over her shoulder, “I’ll see you later, Ronnie!”
“Well, how ’bout it?” Billie asked.
Ronnie loved to play in the woods, but Lake Hirdinea was in the wilderness. He would be forty miles from home, not four blocks. The trees were immense, thousand-year-old monsters that clustered together to hide bands of roving wolves and mountain lions and sasquatches. Worst of all, he couldn’t bring Winston to protect him. The Willard Brothers would mock him mercilessly if they saw him with a teddy bear. Sleeping with a stuffed animal was almost as bad as using a night light!
“I can’t go,” Ronnie said. “I have to see the dentist.”
The boys were confused. “A dentist’s appointment? On a Saturday?”
“Oh, that’s right.” He chewed his fingertip thoughtfully. “…It’s a funeral. He’s dead. One of his patients bit him, and he got rabies.”
“Why would a patient have – “
“Maybe next time! Bye, guys!”
That night, Ronnie was curled up in bed, listening to Winston read “Rip Van Winkle.” It was a sad story, about a man who had the best years of his life pass him by while he slept.
Ronnie’s mother had read to him every night, until his last birthday. According to her, turning seven made him “officially too old for bedtime stories.” However, he suspected that the real reason was so she could spend more time downstairs with his dad. His parents were always complaining about not having enough free time, but they sure spent a lot of it in front of the TV.
Finally, the story came to a close. “…and it is a common wish of all hen-pecked husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their hands, that they might have a quieting drink out of Rip Van Winkle’s flagon.”
“What’s a flagon?” Ronnie asked.
Winston scratched his fuzzy chin. “I believe it’s a kind of dragon. Breathes mead instead of fire.” Winston tossed the book on the nightstand. “It’s time for bed.” He stretched and yawned, and hopped down to the floor. He toddled across the rug, standing in front of the closet door. With his hands on his hips, he said, “Go to sleep. I’ll keep you safe.”
Ronnie pulled the covers up to his chin and smiled. As long as Winston stood guard, the monsters couldn’t harm him. As scary as They were, They were too afraid of polar bears. He closed his eyes, safe and secure. As he drifted off to sleep, his thumb made its way to his mouth.
The morning sun shoved its way through the clouds. Ronnie opened his eyes and smiled. Thursday! On Thursdays, he and Violet played checkers before breakfast! “Hey, Winston… Where are you?” The bear wasn’t in bed. “Are you in the closet? The sun’s up. You can get under the covers and warm up.” Nothing. Maybe he wandered off?
Ronnie stepped into the hall. No Winston. He checked the bathroom, in the shower and linen closet, but he wasn’t there, either. His big brother, Gabe, burst into the room. “Hey, squirt. Take a hike. I need to shower.”
“Have you seen Winston?”
Gabe grabbed a towel from the closet. “Who’s that?”
“My bear!”
Gabe laughed. “Oh, that. You’re too old for that stupid thing. Why don’t you take over my paper route for a couple of days, and earn some money? You could buy a model plane, or a football… You know, toys that aren’t for babies.”
“Winston’s not a baby toy! You’re just jealous because he’s my friend, but nobody likes you.” Ronnie decided to demonstrate his maturity by sticking out his tongue. Having made his point, he walked back to his room.
Captain Colossus was standing on the windowsill, staring at the sky. At this time of the morning, most of the other toys would still be asleep. Ronnie’s foot hit a creaky floorboard, and Captain Colossus turned at the sound. “Have you seen Winston?” Ronnie asked. “I can’t find him.”
The robot rubbed his hands together nervously. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Was it… Them?”
Even though he didn’t sweat, Captain Colossus wiped his forehead. “No, not the monsters. Something else. I wanted to tell you, Ronnie. I saw them coming, but I couldn’t do anything. When we were playing last night before bed, you left me tied up in dental floss. When they came for him, I couldn’t move! It took me hours to escape!”
“Who took him?”
“The Borings.” He waved Ronnie closer. “Take me into the other side of the room and we’ll talk about it.” Gesturing at the rubber duck, he added, “Certain people couldn’t handle hearing this.”
Ronnie carried the robot over to the bed, where he hopped down to the pillow. “Who are the Borings?”
“Aliens. They come from a world without creativity, without play, without childhood. Spend their whole lives like middle-aged accountants. But they’ve decided to change… Since they can’t have fun on their own, they’re stealing it! They are taking toys from children all over the world. If the children have nothing to play with, they will be so bored, they will become adults. Dull, sad grownups, just like them.”
“Why would they do that?” Ronnie cried. “How could they be so cruel?”
The robot shook his head sadly. “They’re adults, Ronnie. The world outside these walls is a dull place. Daily routine can crush your heart.” His molded plastic face stretched into a smile. “Fortunately, I don’t have that problem. I have a job I love. I travel through space in my Colossal Ship – sold separately – and fight alien bad guys with my Colossal Ray Gun – sold separately – and, at the end of a hard day, I have a relaxing bath in the Colossal Chamber – also sold separately.” He climbed down from the pillow and jumped to the night stand. “Now, did I ever tell you about the time I fought Doctor Disturbed, the evil Space Podiatrist?”
“Wait a minute,” Ronnie said. “If they’re taking toys, why didn’t they grab you?”
“You left the box of dental floss next to me. Apparently, they thought I was some sort of novelty toothbrush…”
Violet’s laughter nearly rocked her off the couch. “Your teddy bear was abducted by aliens? Really? Aliens from Planet Dullsville came zillions of miles to earth, just to steal your stuffed animals? …Really?”
“I have proof.” He passed her a stack of photographs. “My mom was driving me to my swimming lesson, and we went past Grant Park. The playground is gone.”
The first photo in the stack showed the front of Grant Park, where there was now a ten-story office building. “They built that in a week?” Violet gasped.
“Look closer.” The office building had no parking lot or sidewalk, only grass. Oddly, there were tree branches and bits of seesaw poking out from under it. “It wasn’t built at all. It landed there.” He flipped to the next photos in the stack. “There’s more. Look at the people arriving to work the next day.” The next photo showed a stocky, balding man in a gray suit walking across the grass. He was carrying a newspaper under one arm and a briefcase under the other.
Violet giggled. “It looks like he’s wearing those funny nose and mustache glasses!” She glanced at the rest of the photos. “Hey, why did you take so many pictures of the same guy?”
“I know it sounds strange, but those are seven different people. Look at the next photo.” This time, four men were crossing the grass. All four were stocky, balding men in gray suits, each of them with the same briefcase and newspaper, and identical glasses, mustaches, and large, bulbous noses. “I wanted to take photos of the inside,” he continued, “but there were security guards. They looked just like the businessmen.”
Violet sat on the floor and spread the photos in front of her. “That’s really a spaceship? There are really aliens taking kids’ toys?”
“Yes, it’s true.”
“How do we stop them?” Ronnie pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and, unfolding it, passed it to her. It was a page of advertisements torn from a comic book. Dozens of miniature ads hawked everything from baseball cards to zombie movies.
“We start with the x-ray glasses…”
Ronnie and Violet ran into the house. He had yet another cardboard box under his arm. This one bore the logo of Goofy Novelties Co., a maniacally grinning dog wearing a propeller beanie. The kids thumped up the stairs to his room and, piling on the bed, ripped off the tape.
Captain Colossus was standing on Ronnie’s dresser, battling a battalion of rubber spiders. He signaled for a time out. “What is that, Ronnie?”
“The final piece in our arsenal.” Turning to Violet, he said, “Can you double check the inventory?”
“Sure thing… Magic kit (1), disguise kit (1), rubber band-powered airplane (1), mini aquariums (2), sticky hands (15), rubber spiders (24), candy and sandwiches (some), sponge capsules (loads and loads), and our bus passes. – That’s everything! Let’s go.”
Ronnie and Violet filled their backpacks, grabbed their coats, and took a bus across town. They got off across the street from the former site of Grant Park. There was now an eight-foot chain link fence surrounding the building. Half-concealed by a clump of elm trees was a gate festooned with chains and padlocks and guarded by one of the mustachioed Borings.
“Look, Ronnie! How are we going to get past him? He has a gun!”
Ronnie attempted to look intimidating. “No matter. I have a gun, too.” He reached in his backpack for the cardboard box delivered earlier that day. Inside was a large, silver pistol. He loaded the gun and then strode across the street.
The guard’s mustache bristled threateningly. “What’s all this, then?”
“Alright, you!” Ronnie screamed. “Stand and deliver! …Actually, just move out of the way.”
“Or what?” the guard laughed. “Or you’ll shoot me with your little squirt gun?”
“Well… yeah.”
“Get lost, kid.”
Defeated, he walked back across the street, his metaphorical tail between his legs. “He didn’t buy it,” he told Violet.
“Let me give it a try.” She grabbed something from her backpack, pulled her hood over her head, and ran across the road.
The guard suddenly found himself face-to-face with a fifty-pound werewolf. “Rarr!” she said, clawing the air menacingly.
“Here to eat me all up, then, are you?” he asked.
“Indeed! I mean, ‘rarr!’”
A torrent of laughter washed her back across the street. “You, too, huh?” Ronnie said. “This guy just doesn’t scare! We’ll have to try something else.” He searched through the magic kit, tossing out the linking rings, scarves, and other useless junk. Finally, he raised his fist triumphantly. There it was! A small, plastic disk with a black-and-white spiral printed on the front. With the disk grasped tightly in his palm, he walked confidently once more across the street.
“Come to try again, eh?” the guard chuckled.
“You there!” Ronnie snapped, waving the disk in the air. “Feel the power of my Hypno Disk! You are falling under my control! You are getting sleepy… sleepy…”
“Annoyed is more like it.” He reached for the plastic electroshock gun on his belt. “We’re not supposed to use these on kids, but I’m willing to make an exception in your case. Now get lost and stay lost!”
Dejected, Ronnie returned to the bus stop once more, and he and Violet discussed their options. “We could throw water balloons at him?” he suggested. “Or rocks?”
“And he’ll zap you with his electric gun. You’ll be fried like baloney! Don’t act before you…” Her attention was pulled away by the trees dancing at the gate. “…think. Hold on. I have an idea.”
The guard watched the bus roll out of sight. The children were gone. Apparently, they had finally given up. “And a good thing, too,” he thought. “I didn’t take this job because I liked guarding things! I took this job because I wanted to stand in one spot and stare off into space! Now, where was I? I believe I was looking to the left…” And that he did. He stared at nothing until his mind was filled with the warm fluff of Lack of Thoughts. It was like watching television, but without any pesky plots or characters to interrupt the nothingness.
But then, something terrible invaded the void: pain. His scalp burned. Black things scuttled down his nose and covered his face. The guard ran screaming into the park, headed for the pond.
Violet and Ronnie climbed down from the tree. It had been easy to get up while the guard was looking the other way. Ronnie tossed the empty ant aquarium in a nearby trash can. “I’m going to miss those ants,” he said. “Especially Adam.”
She stepped over to the gate and examined the collection of padlocks holding it shut. “Ronnie, I think we have a problem.”
“What’s the trouble? Look at how big those chain links are! This fence looks easier to climb than the jungle gym!”
She pointed at a sign next to the gate – Warning: Electric Fence! “Looks like I’ll have to sacrifice my own pets for this one.” She pulled a tiny aquarium from her bag. “Goodbye, little sea monkeys…” She opened the top and poured the aquarium on the fence. The fence sparked and sputtered and flashed and, finally, was silent.
“Is it safe?” he asked.
“Of course. Probably. Maybe. I don’t know. Why don’t you try it?” He was reluctant, so she shoved him into the fence. Thankfully, nothing happened. They scrambled up and over the fence, landing hard on the dirt below. After a moment’s pause to catch their breath, they were headed to the office building’s front door.
A security camera over the door blinked its eye in confusion. Ronnie grabbed the knob and yanked. Nothing. He tried pushing, pulling, and a combination of the two he called “pulshing”. Still nothing. Unfortunately, the door was locked. Not with as many locks as the front gate, but in this case, one lock was enough.
“I think I saw a step ladder over there,” she said, “by the fence.”
“How’s a ladder going to help? This place is, like, a million miles tall!”
“Just go get it!” He found a wooden ladder hiding in the grass, apparently forgotten by some workman. He dragged it back to the front door, propping it against the wall under the camera. Violet dug in her backpack for the bag of rubber spiders. “Let’s see if our aliens have arachnophobia…” She arranged the creepy crawlies in formation on the top step, their fangs aimed threateningly at the camera. “This close to the lens, they’ll look huge! And now, we wait.” She yanked Ronnie behind a nearby tree.
The door flew open, sending the ladder flying. A flood of stocky, balding men in gray suits spilled out onto the grass. As the guards spread out in search of the eight-legged invaders, the kids slipped past them into the building. “Hold on,” Ronnie said. He pulled his gum from his mouth and used it to plug the lock on the door.
Violet scowled. “I thought this was a spaceship disguised as an office building. But the inside looks like an office building, too! This place is duller than safety scissors.”
He examined his surroundings, from the water-stained acoustic tiles on the ceiling to the faux Formica on the floors. It did look like an office building. “Well, these guys are aliens, no doubt about that. Maybe the disguise just goes a few layers deep, like that Halloween when I wore my Spider-Man costume over my Spider-Man underwear.”
She rolled her eyes. “Or something like that…”
The kids explored the halls. Most of the doors were locked. The office building was like a maze. At any moment, they expected to be set upon by a minotaur. They turned yet another corner and froze. A security guard was leaning in front of an important-looking door. He was twirling a very large, extremely pointy weapon, some sort of combination spear gun/cattle prod.
“How do we get him out of the way?” Violet wondered. “We’re all out of ants.”
“Hold on.” Ronnie pulled her back around the corner. He found the balsa wood airplane in his bag and wound up the propeller until the rubber band threatened to snap. Buzzing like a gigantic mosquito, the plane sailed past the guard and down the hall.
He ran after the tiny toy. “Stop! Don’t lay your eggs in here! My boss’s office is this way!”
“Quick!” Ronnie whispered. “Now’s our chance!” The kids rushed down the hall and through the door, sealing it shut behind them with some more gum.
This new hall was different, a dank tunnel of rusting, brown iron. It seemed more like a giant sewer pipe than the inside of a spaceship. As they clambered down the tunnel, the light grew weaker and weaker. Finally, they were walking blind, feeling the walls with their hands. Ronnie stepped forward, but his foot couldn’t find the floor. “Violet, stop! There’s a hole.”
She flicked on the firefly light in her wristwatch. They had come to a gap in the tunnel, fifty feet of nothing, just a drop into darkness. On the other side of the gap was a platform. At the edge of the platform was a narrow wall that stretched nearly to the ceiling. Just visible behind the wall was a large winch.
“Look at that!” Ronnie gasped. “That’s not a wall – that’s a drawbridge! I bet the winch is attached to chains on the other side. Whatever is across the gap must be really important. Maybe it’s the kitchen! ”
“But how do we reach it? The controls are over there! Even if we hadn’t thrown away the plane, it couldn’t turn a crank.”
“How about the sticky hands?” The hands were glittery vinyl attached to long, stretchy strings. They were stickier than a roll of duct tape dipped in molasses. “We’ll have to tie them all together, but it might just work!”
The kids tied the strings together until they had a nine-foot strand of adhesive rubber. Holding tightly to one end, Violet flicked her wrist like an archaeologist cracking a whip. The sticky hand stretched across the gap and latched onto the winch handle. “Pull!” she cried. “Help me pull!”
The children tugged on the line, and the adhesive appendage held fast. Finally, the winch began to turn. The bridge dropped with a thunderous clang that seemed to echo for days. They clamored across the bridge and pulled it back up, locking the winch on the other side.
Just past the bridge was a large, arched passageway leading to a long, door-lined hallway. Instead of a knob, each of the doors had a large button marked “Close/Unclose”.
“Which door?” Ronnie asked. “There could be more alien guards behind any one of them.”
“Indeed,” Violet said. “Let’s try the x-ray glasses.” Amazingly, the plastic toy failed to make the walls transparent. Perhaps they were lined with lead?
“What do we do now?” Ronnie asked.
“We haven’t seen any guards for a while,” Violet said. “Maybe there aren’t any more?”
“Let’s ask and find out.” He picked a door at random and tapped politely. “Hello? May we come through this way, please?”
A voice on the other side laughed heartily. “Oh, no, no! Absolutely not! This corridor is very heavily guarded. Anyone coming this way would be shot immediately. No, best not do that until our lunch break!”
“Well,” Ronnie said, “I guess we wait.”
They ran down the corridor, their footsteps echoing like the inside of a museum. The walls, floor, and ceiling were each slightly different shades of gray. Newspaper gray, asphalt gray, February morning gray. Had they not been trying to save the world’s toys from certain doom, they would have been very tempted to stop for a nap.
They came to a “T” in the hall. He ran a few steps ahead, turning a corner. “Help! Come quick!”
She rushed to his side, skidding to a stop. At the end of the corridor, a row of guards were shouting and raising their weapons. They looked like a swarm of dentists all jostling to drill the same tooth. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back around the corner. “Turn on that water fountain and break off the handle.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask. Just do it!” She reached in her backpack and produced a plastic bubble stuffed with tiny, multicolored capsules. “Throw these in the water, and follow me!” As the kids ran, the capsules soaked up the water and grew, transforming into a rainbow of sponge dinosaurs. They swelled and expanded until they filled the entire hallway, trapping the guards behind them.
Pushing their way through some double doors, the kids entered an enormous room filled with child-sized chairs. On each chair sat a different toy: baby dolls, puppets, figurines, and stuffed animals of every species and color. The toys were busy putting on their seat belts. Apparently, this was the ship’s passenger cabin.
“You there!” barked a floppy-eared dog. “I’ve been waiting to go for days now, and I won’t have you two delaying things. Sit! Sit!”
A side door opened, and one of the Borings stepped into the cabin. He was identical to all the others, save for a purple sash splattered with medals, and a gigantic, orange hat embroidered with the words “Supreme Exalted Leader of All He Surveys, and Six Other Places Besides”.
“Where is Winston?” Ronnie demanded.
The Boring Leader chuckled. “He is sitting in the back, between the purple giraffe and the Drippy Debbie Doll.”
“Let him go!” Ronnie’s hands balled into fists. “Let him go, or I’ll tell my daddy!”
“But of course! He is free to leave any time he likes. All the toys are. We thought you wouldn’t want him anymore! Are you sure you want to live with that liar?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Perhaps I should let him explain. Mr. Winston, if you please.”
A fuzzy, white shape appeared at the back of the cabin. “It’s true, Ronnie,” Winston said. “I have deceived you all your life. And when the Borings came, I saw it as an easy way out. I could finally stop lying.”
He hid his face in his paws. “You don’t understand what it’s like to be a toy! If you’re an action figure or a model car, your owner can put proudly on display well into adulthood. But if you’re a doll or a stuffed animal, anything that brings comfort and companionship, once your owner gets too old, away to the attic you go! It’s horrible up there! In the summer, it gets hot enough to melt plastic! I had to avoid that. I was terrified, so I decided to lie. I said there were horrible things in the closet that would eat you while you slept. I said the only thing they were afraid of was a big, ferocious bear – me. I kept you afraid for years, because I wanted to make sure you would always need me.” Tears fell from his plastic eyes, and were immediately absorbed by his fur. “But I was just fooling myself. As hard as I tried to keep you, I knew I couldn’t hold on to you forever. You just… keep… getting older. So when the Borings came, I didn’t call out for help. I just left without a fight. I’m sorry.”
Ronnie picked up Winston and squeezed him to his chest. “It’s alright, Winston. I still love you. You don’t have to worry about the attic. I will always keep you with me.”
“What about the rest of you toys?” Violet asked.
The dog shook his head sadly. “My Becky is seventeen now. She might not toss me in the attic, but she certainly won’t take me with her to college. I didn’t want to be left all alone! So, when the Borings came, I left her before she could abandon me.”
Violet stroked his ears gently. “You don’t have to be alone. I’ll take you to the children’s hospital. You can help some sick little boy get better. When he gets older, you can ask him to give you to the hospital again. You’ll be played with forever!”
“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.” The dog stood on the back of his chair. “C’mon, everybody! Let’s go!”
The Boring Leader stepped over to the intercom. “Alright, boys! Time to go. Maybe there are unwanted toys on Venus…”
The next day, Ronnie was walking home from school, only a few minutes away from an entire evening of fun with Winston. As he passed through the woods, he was stopped by the Willard brothers.
“Changed your mind about the campin’ trip?” Billie asked. ”I’m so excited, I’ve already packed! I filled my backpack with everythin’ I need for a night in the woods: a space blanket, a sleeping bag, an inflatable pillow – everythin’! I had to leave my books to make room, but who cares?”
“What should I do?” Ronnie thought. “It would be weird sleeping without Winston, but I really want to go. I hope he won’t be upset if I leave him behind.” To the brothers, he said, “Sure, I guess I’ll come. It sounds like fun.”
“That’s great!” Todd said.
“See you tomorrow!” Billie said. The brothers waved goodbye and headed for home. As they turned to go, Ronnie saw something pink and furry poking out of the back of Billie’s backpack. Apparently, Billie needed one more thing to spend the night in the woods: a stuffed rabbit.
Ronnie smiled brightly. “Maybe I’ll bring Winston after all!”
